Steam or fluid-pressure engine.



Patented Apr. 8, |902.

W. J. EMMITT. STEAM 0B FLUID PRESSURE ENGINE.

(Application filed Aug. 19, 1901.) (N0 Windel.)

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OF COLUMBUS, OI'IIO.

STEAM OR FLUID=PRESSURE ENGINE.

SPECIFICATION foinning part of Letters Fat-ent No. 697,136, dated April 8, 1.902.

Application led August 19, 1901.. Serial No. 72,557. (No model.)

T0 (all zuwm it may concern:

Be it known that I, lVILLIAM J. EMMITT, a citizen of the United States, residing at O0- lumbus, in the county of Franklin and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Steam or Fluid-PressnreEngines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The object of this invention is to provide an improved fluid-pressure engine, or, more broadly, a fluid pressure engine especially adapted for propelling automobiles and other vehicles, which shall be of simple and economical construction and which can be started, stopped, reversed, or varied in its speed by the operation of a single handle.

The features of novelty are pointed out in the claim appended hereto.

In the accompanying drawings, in which I have illustrated one embodiment of theinvention, Figure l is a sectional View on the line 0c, Fig. 2, of the shaft 'upon which the cylinders are hung and oscillate and also the controlling-valve and the steam chest or chamber. Fig. 2 is a transverse-sectional view taken on the line y y, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a view of the face of the controlling-valve. Fig. l is a sectional View of a cylinder and the shaft upon which it is hung. Fig. 5 is a view in side elevation of the.entire engine.

The supporting-frame includes two side pieces 1. In the upper portion of the frame is supported the stationary shaft 2, having two longitudinal passages 2L and 2" with lateral ports 2C and 2, there being such ports for each of the three cylinders 8, 8, and 8b. Threaded to the outer end of the shaft 2 and constituting practically a part of the shaft is shown to be a section 3, containing passages forming continuations of the passages 2a and 2" as well as a portion of the exhaust-passage or port 3b. Coupled to this piece 3 by a coupling 4b is the steam-chest 4, containing the inlet-port a for the admission of the live steam, and ports or passages constituting further continuations of the passages 2 and 2b in the shaft 2 and the exhaust passage or port 3" in the part 3. A pin 3 to engage a properlylocated hole in the part containing the chamber 4C will assist in locating correctly the two parts with respect to each other. In this chamber 4: is placed the rotative controllingvalve 5, having a through-port 5a and an arcshaped recess-portb. The ports of the part et that form continuations of the passages 2 and 2b and the exhaust passage or port 3l are equidistantly located, corresponding to the disposition of such passages, as is shownin Fig. 2, and the two ports in the controllingvalve 5 are so located that when the throughport 5v alines with one of the passages 2 and 2b the recessed port establishes communication of the other with the exhaust-passage 3b. The valve 5 is engaged by a rotatable stem 6, extending through a suitably-boxed opening in a hood 7 on the outer end of the steamchamber, the outer end of said stem being furnished with a convenient handle 6b, by which the valve can be manipulated. This handle can also be provided with a springactuated pin 6b to enter any of several holes in the outer side of the hood 7 to indicate the proper position of the valve 5 and hold it in such position to admit, regulate the admission to, or shut off steam from the passages 2 or 2b. I have not shown in my drawings the spring that actuates the pin, because it constitutes no part of my present invention and is a well-understood construction, and, moreover, the construction can be dispensed with entirely and other means for performing its function substituted.

In Fig. 3 I have indicated the cylinders S, S, and 8b of three single-acting engines as hung to oscillate upon the shaft 2. The head of each of these cylinders has a port ll, which as the cylinder oscillates is brought to coincide successively with the ports 2C and 2l. The piston-rods 9, 9, and 9b ofl these cylinders are connected by ordinary straps to the cranks of a power-shaft l0, journaled in the lower part of the frame, said cranks extending radially from the axis of said shaft one while one cylinder is taking a head of steam another has a full head and the third is exhausting. Dead-centeringis thusimpossble. By turning the valve 5 to shift the throughport 5*L from, say, passage 2fL to passage 2b the direction of motion of the engine is reversed, and 'by turning said valve so that the hundred and twenty degrees apart, so thatl IOO port 5fL is throttled between the passages 2a and 2b the engine is stopped altogether. The speed of the engine in either direction can be varied by turning the valve 5 to vary the size of the *opening made between the port 5 into the passage 2a or 2l. Thus it will be observed that with the single handle 6a the engine can be started in either direction, stopped, reversed, and have its speed regulated, and all this Without the employment of links or complex auxiliary devices.

An adjustable bushing l2 at one end of the shaft 2 can be used to draw the cylinders sufficiently close together as to prevent side play on the shaft.

It is an obvious expedient to inclose the lower end of the casing to form a receptacle for oil in which the crank-shaft l0 can work.

The shaft 2, the part 3, and the end of the steam-chest 4 adjacent the part 3 can be Viewed as one structure containing the steampassages.

While I have referred to my engine herein described as a steam-engine, steam is not necessarily the operating agent, because any fluid under pressure can be employed.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In a Huid-pressure engine, a stationary shaft containinglongitudinal passages 2l and 2b and an exhaust-port 3b opening on one end of said shaft, cylinders hung to oscillate on saidshaft, ports from the passages 2a and 2b for each of said cylinders, a shiftable valve 5 containing a single through-port 5a and a connected double-recess port 5b, said shiftable valve Working on the end of said shaft and adapted to admit live pressure through the port 5iL to either of the passages 2 and 2b and exhaust from the other through the valve-port 5b and shaft-port 3", substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM J. EMMITT.

Witnesses:

GEO. M. FINCKEL, WALTER' HAMILTON. 

